Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 65, who was once seen as a presidential contender, stands accused in Lille, France, with 13 other defendants, including Dominique Alderweireld, a sex club owner known as Dodo la Saumure. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a silver-haired economist, is charged with “aggravated procurement in a group,” or pimping, and using his subordinates to obtain prostitutes for lavish sex parties.

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Prostitution is legal in France, but facilitating and soliciting it are not. The Guardian says 15 "soirées" organized around Strauss-Kahn’s schedule, including some in Brussels and New York, are involved in the case and that he’s described in court papers as “the king of the party.” Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys say he “never made a secret of his penchant for sex parties” but did not have a major role in organizing them and did not know the women he was having sex with were prostitutes.

Strauss-Kahn faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, but the Guardian says that “few, if any” observers “believe that Strauss-Kahn will be locked up.”